A young man in a dishdash stands beside a deserted stretch of road, a car speeding towards him in a cloud of dust. Within a few horrifying seconds it becomes clear that the driver has misjudged. The late-model saloon veers off the road and rotates in the air. Two bodies fly from the windows and smash to the ground.
It is hard to believe either could survive the impact.
This is just one of hundreds of videos posted on YouTube that show terrifying incidents on UAE roads. Many show young men driving at high speeds, racing or pulling stunts in high-performance vehicles, reminiscent of a popular series of movies from the US launched in 2001.
"This mentality started with The Fast and the Furious. It's a fever," said Mohammed bin Sulayem, a well-known rally driver and president of the Automobile and Touring Club for UAE. "We have to make the streets safer by getting these guys off the roads and into settings where there are proper facilities and safety standards."
Police say they will investigate the videos, in which the young thrill-seekers have been recorded using their vehicles to jump off sand dunes, or dune-bashing, and drifting, which involves a deft use of the clutch and hand brake to perform sharp turns and sudden stops.
Informal gatherings are held in remote settings, where the drivers eschew basic safety precautions such as helmets and race in areas not readily serviced by ambulances.
For years, young men have participated in racing "teams", where residents from cities across the country gather to compete in saloon cars and four-wheel drive vehicles.
They are notorious for eluding authorities and performing such risky stunts as "tashheet", which involves pulling the handbrake at high speed, and "shal", driving a vehicle on two wheels at a sideways angle.
The YouTube videos show such stunts being performed in what appear to be areas around Sharjah, Dubai and Abu Dhabi as well as in Saudi Arabia. Dozens of listings appear after typing such phrases as "UAE drifting" and "UAE crazy driving" into YouTube's search engine.
Set to rap and Arabic music, drivers in the videos often race down heavily travelled roads and then abruptly pull their handbrakes, causing vehicles to careen wildly as smoke shoots off burning tyres.
Others perform high-speed, 360-degree turns with young men dangling out of windows. One video called UAE Boys (NO HANDS) shows a man driving with his feet while using his hands to smoke a cigarette to Is This Love, a song by Bob Marley.
Motorists in other videos are tossed from crashing vehicles, their bodies flailing in the air before landing on pavement, while a few show cars smashing into young spectators.
hnaylor@thenational.ae
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Who is Tim-Berners Lee?
Sir Tim Berners-Lee was born in London in a household of mathematicians and computer scientists. Both his mother, Mary Lee, and father, Conway, were early computer scientists who worked on the Ferranti 1 - the world's first commercially-available, general purpose digital computer. Sir Tim studied Physics at the University of Oxford and held a series of roles developing code and building software before moving to Switzerland to work for Cern, the European Particle Physics laboratory. He developed the worldwide web code as a side project in 1989 as a global information-sharing system. After releasing the first web code in 1991, Cern made it open and free for all to use. Sir Tim now campaigns for initiatives to make sure the web remains open and accessible to all.
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2pm: Handicap (PA) Dh 40,000 (Dirt) 1,200m
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2.30pm: Maiden (PA) Dh 40,000 (D) 1,000m
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3pm: Maiden (PA) Dh 40,000 (D) 1,700m
Winner: Amirah, Conner Beasley, Ali Rashid Al Raihe.
3.30pm: Handicap (PA) Dh 40,000 (D) 1,700m
Winner: Jap Al Yaasoob, Szczepan Mazur, Irfan Ellahi.
4pm: Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan Cup Prestige Handicap (PA) Dh 100,000 (D) 1,200m
Winner: Jawaal, Fernando Jara, Majed Al Jahouri.
4.30pm: Handicap (TB) Dh 40,000 (D) 1,200m
Winner: Manhunter, Ryan Curatolo, Mujeeb Rahman.
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Directed by: Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari
Starring: Kriti Sanon, Ayushmann Khurrana, Rajkummar Rao
Three and a half stars
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How green is the expo nursery?
Some 400,000 shrubs and 13,000 trees in the on-site nursery
An additional 450,000 shrubs and 4,000 trees to be delivered in the months leading up to the expo
Ghaf, date palm, acacia arabica, acacia tortilis, vitex or sage, techoma and the salvadora are just some heat tolerant native plants in the nursery
Approximately 340 species of shrubs and trees selected for diverse landscape
The nursery team works exclusively with organic fertilisers and pesticides
All shrubs and trees supplied by Dubai Municipality
Most sourced from farms, nurseries across the country
Plants and trees are re-potted when they arrive at nursery to give them room to grow
Some mature trees are in open areas or planted within the expo site
Green waste is recycled as compost
Treated sewage effluent supplied by Dubai Municipality is used to meet the majority of the nursery’s irrigation needs
Construction workforce peaked at 40,000 workers
About 65,000 people have signed up to volunteer
Main themes of expo is ‘Connecting Minds, Creating the Future’ and three subthemes of opportunity, mobility and sustainability.
Expo 2020 Dubai to open in October 2020 and run for six months
At a glance
Global events: Much of the UK’s economic woes were blamed on “increased global uncertainty”, which can be interpreted as the economic impact of the Ukraine war and the uncertainty over Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Growth forecasts: Cut for 2025 from 2 per cent to 1 per cent. The OBR watchdog also estimated inflation will average 3.2 per cent this year
Welfare: Universal credit health element cut by 50 per cent and frozen for new claimants, building on cuts to the disability and incapacity bill set out earlier this month
Spending cuts: Overall day-to day-spending across government cut by £6.1bn in 2029-30
Tax evasion: Steps to crack down on tax evasion to raise “£6.5bn per year” for the public purse
Defence: New high-tech weaponry, upgrading HM Naval Base in Portsmouth
Housing: Housebuilding to reach its highest in 40 years, with planning reforms helping generate an extra £3.4bn for public finances
